Team McCrea: Happy Anniversary!.....Belated, that is.

I realize that it’s almost two months late, but I wasn’t exactly in a location where I could blog on the actual date. So…..here’s to “Better late than never.”

June 11, 2010

Hugh and I got married in Rincon, Puerto Rico. We’d vacationed there a few years prior and fell in love with the place. Rincon is considered to be the lazy side of the island. It’s full of hippie-type locals and wealthy Americans that no longer want to pay U.S. taxes. Hugh and I stayed at a wonderful B&B called Tres Sirenas. It’s a gorgeous two story white stone house that seems to have been taken right out of the fictional Pottery Barn: Caribbean Edition. It’s literally right on the beach, has a great pool and best hosts that anyone could hope for. We talked often about how we’d love to get married there someday.

Fast forward to the night Hugh proposes. We’d been eating an incredible dinner (prepared by us) of grilled filet and homemade mashed potatoes when Hugh jumps up from the candlelit table and says, “I’ll be right back.” He then took off upstairs bypassing the downstairs restroom. I recall thinking to myself, “Really?? Why do men need to poop so often?” A few moments later, he comes downstairs where he proceeds to get down on one knee and asks me to be his wife. We celebrated by opening an expensive bottle of wine that we’d been saving and in our excitement, we drank the whole thing. To this day, that was the best wine I’ve ever had. As we were sitting on the floor in the living room that evening we talked about how all both of us really wanted was to get married at Tres Sirenas. We knew that it was unconventional and that people might think we were crazy, but it was how we wanted to get married.

Hugh and I knew that we wanted a small, informal wedding. We were ecstatic to be joined by our immediate families, two of Hugh’s aunts and uncles, and his Grandpa John. We asked Hugh’s Aunt Anna if she would be willing to become ordained and officiate the ceremony. She not only agreed, but she did the best job that either of us could ever imagine. We found a photographer online, and were referred to a private chef, Chef Pedro the “Organic Surfer Chef” by the owners of the B&B. Hugh and I met with the chef two days before the ceremony and hammered out a final menu. We rented tables and chairs on our own, brought our iPod with a great playlist, purchased alcohol at Sam’s in P.R., and located a woman to do hair for me and my sister, Chelsey. Hugh and I did all of the planning. We bought three dozen roses at Sam’s and my mother wrapped the stems for us to use as bouquets. My mom and I took a trip down to Harwin and bought tablecloths and chair covers. We cut Michael’s coupons for weeks so we could buy vases and such to use as centerpieces on the tables. My sister got her dress at Dillard’s and I paid just under $400 for mine. I guess what I’m trying to get at is this: We did all the planning on our own and it worked! We didn’t need to have a so-called “Platinum Wedding”. This was what would make us happy. Even when Mother Nature decided to play….

Now, where was I? The day of the wedding dawns and preparations start being made. At breakfast, the proprietor of the B&B approaches my mother to let her know that there’s been a death in their family and that they are going to have to leave the property. It was a sad situation, and the poor woman was worried that I would be upset. (Seriously? Who am I? Bridezilla?) Around noon, the power goes off. With Puerto Rico being an island, they tend to get random power outages. Typically, they last no more than 10 minutes. Well, I was supposed to get my hair done at 2:00, but at 1:45 the lady calls me and says that she doesn’t have power at her place so she can’t do my hair. She tells me not to panic (I’m not panicking, I promise!) that we can wait until 4:00 and she can still have my hair done. Then, it starts to storm. NO BIG DEAL. It’s the tropics in summer. This is a common occurrence. Usually it rains for about 30 minutes and then it’s nice a cool afterwards. Um….this time….not so much. At 3:00 the stylist calls me back and says that she found a place with a generator so she can do mine and Chelsey’s hair. We leave and go get prettied up. In the rain. The pouring rain.

Chelsey and I arrive back around 4:30. Note: The wedding was supposed to take place between 5:00 and 6:00. We were aiming for around sunset. The rain is coming down and the power is still off. The chef has arrived and is confident that the power will come back on. However, he had brought a large wok that connects to a propane tank as a back-up plan. He tells me to relax. I’m relaxed and not worried at all. I simply walk on by and upstairs to the room where my mom, sister and I were going to get ready. My sister did my make-up for me, and she did it in the breakfast nook with only sunlight. Oh, did I mention that it was over 90*?? And that Chelsey was 7 months pregnant? The photographer was there taking pictures non-stop and suddenly, it stops raining! The sun was peeking out from the clouds and I can hear Hugh and everyone else running around like crazy downstairs on the pool deck setting up chairs and tables. My Dad was all dressed up and squeegging off the patio. Hugh might have been yelling a little. Not really at anyone in particular, but I recall hearing him say “THIS IS GOING TO BE PERFECT DAMNIT!!”

I ended up getting dressed in the semi-dark, my poor mom lacing up my dress while her hair is still wet from her shower. My brother Brandon comes upstairs asking where we’d hidden the scotch because all the people downstairs have decided that Hugh needs to relax a bit. You see: Normally, I’m the high anxiety person in our relationship. I freak out about everything. Yet, on our wedding day when all of this crazy stuff is happening I’m the relaxed one and poor Hugh’s attempting to have a stroke. He was so worried that I was going to be upset, and he wanted to make sure that I had my “perfect wedding day”. That makes me smile as I write this. You see; to me none of the trappings make the wedding day. It’s simply the part where you stand up and pledge your love to each other. That’s all that matters. The rest is simply icing.

All at once it’s time to go. I walk down the stairs and wait with my Dad as everyone else runs down to the beach. I’m perfectly calm and ready. My dad has a tear in his eye, but he’s smiling and telling me that I’m beautiful. We step out onto the beach (and around the corded off nest where the sea turtle decided to lay some eggs) and begin the walk down aisle. The rain made everything look bright and beautiful and the sun was peeking out through the clouds. Hugh was BEAMING at me. I felt so beautiful and loved at that moment. I cried during the ceremony and Hugh got a little teary eyed. Aunt Anna pronounced us married and we were both so happy.

After we took pictures we had some appetizers and drinks. The chef made a four-course meal for 19 people on a WOK attached to a PROPANE TANK. Can we say amazing chef?? The lights stayed out and we actually ate in the dark. Ok, it was pretty dark but we did have some candles and we played pass the flashlight. The food was delicious, and right about the time dessert was being passed out the lights came back on! Everyone cheered and then immediately took off running for the rooms to turn on the a/c’s.

Hugh and I have a great wedding story. The best part happens to be the part I left out. Our vows. We wrote them ourselves and I know that I was touched beyond words. We live out our vows to each other every day. This doesn’t mean that we don’t fight, but we do love each other dearly and we are genuinely friends. I feel like this makes our relationship very strong, and I know in my heart that Hugh is the one for me.

I do want to say that there would have been no wedding at all if everyone hadn't pitched in an helped. Hugh and I are so grateful to have such wonderful family. Everyone worked on some aspect of the wedding. Decorating, Cleaning, organizing, etc. It was wonderful because we had such great people helping us.

Aunt Anna and Uncle Paul gave us a wedding scrapbook that they prepared for us before they came. She had typed out the ceremony on beautiful stationary and she’d even included the cute reading that my brother Jordan read and the poem that my brother Brandon read. Everyone at the wedding wrote a small card to us and she included the small papers that we’d written our vows on. It’s the most precious gift and I’ll cherish it always.